#181 Iowa State Fair

"Iowa's is the classic state fair, and on of the largest, a quintessentially American event that attracts a million revelers each August to the massive Iowa State Fairgrounds ... One of the symbols of the century-and-a-half-old fair: the beloved Butter Cow, sculpted annually since 1911 from 550 pounds of butter."



Since Iowa is traditionally the first state to caucus in Presidential elections, all candidates are invited to the fair to participate in the Political Soap Box - sponsored by the Des Moines Register.  Each candidate gets 20 minutes, a microphone, and many eyes and ears on them.  I saw Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, John Hickenlooper, and Elizabeth Warren take their 20 minutes.  I missed Cory Booker, by wandering off too far away to get back for his time slot.



The bottom right picture was pulled from Elizabeth Warren's campaign...see that lamp post with all the balloons?  I was at the bottom of it, mostly without a line of sight, but I did get a couple of decent pictures.  (Mostly because I spent Hickenlooper and Gillibrand's time on the soapbox figuring out how to get the shot through the crowd.)